KB is on a GOAT trajectory and why it matters.

Armando ponders how music can impact a generation of listeners.

“This guy could eventually become the GOAT!”

My brother and I had just finished listening to KB’s, Kevin Burgess, debut album with Reach Records.

“Woah, calm down. He has the talent but will need a library of songs and albums before that would even be a discussion.”

Twelve years later, KB has that library full of hit singles and God-focused albums. When my brother made that proclamation, it was at the height of Christian Rap and Hip-Hop. Lecrae became more known among mainstream Christians and eventually became known by secular rappers when he rapped on BET’s cypher. Eventually, Lecrae would top Billboard’s top 100. Lecrae has reached heights that no Christian hip-hop follower thought was possible. Several Grammys later, Lecrae became the undisputed GOAT of Christian Hip-Hop.

Lecrae has been in the game for twenty years! Real Talk, After the Music Stops (my introduction to CHH), and Rebel were his first three albums in the early-mid 2000s. Rehab was the album that seemed to put Lecrae in a different musical category. Christian rappers before this were a niche. I still remember how that album overtook the Bible college I attended. That was nearly fifteen years ago. That is fifteen years of teens and young adults hearing someone talk to them through the sound waves.

Rap is a unique art form. A rapper can say more in twenty seconds than a singer can in a three-minute song. Rappers have the freedom to be more blunt while also using clever lyricism to make people think.

This is why it matters. Lecrae has shifted his music. Early on, Lecrae’s music was a wonderful blend of theology, beats, and challenges to the Christian and the listening world. More recently, he has become a martyr of his success. He has regularly called out those in the church who would dare criticize him. That list includes Voddie Baucham. All while openly admitting to struggling with secret doubts and sins that made him question his faith in God. Lecrae once was the man who screamed, “I’m Unashamed!” Now, as an artist, he says he still is but regularly seems ashamed to be associated with the church and its views.

KB, on the other hand, apparently shares some of the same views as Lecrae, as seen in his songs Champion and Dark Skin. However, he regularly raps about his love for God’s people and the belief that God will sanctify His Bride. KB has no problem challenging his Christian listeners but does it in a way that makes the listener feel like a friend.

KB raps about his wife, kids, brothers, and sisters in the Lord. He raps about the vanity of fame and money. He raps about the glory of God and how we were made to reflect that glory.

KB and Lecrae remain friends and often mention each other in their songs, as well as being featured in each other’s albums. Yet, in many ways, KB has been much of what Lecrae is not. KB, in his last album, His Glory Alone 2, quipped

It's young K, I've been down in the smoke
I am here, where y'all at?
Never ran from no, woo, I take wolves by the pack
If I fell, if I fail, well tomorrow run it back
I box for real, wars in the gym
But what's tougher is tucking Your grace not a strap
I'm not the One, but I was one
Showed you that one woman's enough
I was the one, stayed on the One
Whatever comes, no switching it up
I was the one, did it for love, never blew up but I'm one of them ones
I'll be the one that fell out the one percent 'cause I gave away all of my funds
Eye on the Son, ride to the Son
Me and my sons, Nala and love
I'm almost done, what I've become
It's crazy what God can do with these crumbs
Do with these drums, already won
If they don't acknowledge the work that I've done
K to the second is second to none
'Cause integrity means more to me than these
(Will all who wish to die please raise their hand)

This encapsulates all that he wishes to be remembered as. He once rapped, “If you forget my name, please remember my Jesus.” Now, he realizes that his music, business, and life have been pointing to Jesus, biblical principles, and a Christian worldview, so to remember KB is to remember what God did with crumbs. If KB continues on this pace for five years or more, he’d match Lecrae’s current reach. Yet, his musical legacy will be HGA to the grave while challenging young listeners to live for that alone. Imagine two to three generations of young people whose anthem is “His glory alone!”

His pull is growing. I have listened to KB since his mixtape days. My seven-year-old daughter loves to belt out his older song Lights Go Out, about loving Christ’s Church and being committed to her until she makes it home. This past spring, we took her to a KB concert in Miami and were on the upper balcony. When KB was about to come on, she asked, “Can we go to the moshpit?,” because of his hit single Worship in the Moshpit. We have had numerous conversations about the meaning of lyrics and the beauty of his music. Imagine a generation of young believers loving God’s glory and His Church. KB is well on his way to GOAT status, which matters more than ever.